Spiffy:

Iffy:

Frustrating camera issues; persistent slowdown issues.

When it comes to horror videogames, there are none more frightening than the Silent Hill series. Sure, the Resident Evil games are good for a zombie-filled scare, but once you enter Silent Hill, you're chilled to the bone on a deep psychological and emotional level. In just a few weeks, the franchise will be making its debut on the current generation of consoles with the release of Silent Hill: Homecoming. We recently booked a visit to the not-so-quaint little town, and put together this little travel log of our adventures.

One of the biggest concerns fans have had regarding this latest entry to the Silent Hill mythology has to do with Konami's choice of developer for the game. Instead of sticking with its Team Silent staff at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, the publisher decided to farm the game out to U.S.-based developer The Collective (now called Double Helix Games, after a merger with Shiny Entertainment). Fans of the Silent Hill games were vocal about their concerns that the change in developers would result in the series losing a lot of what's made it such a uniquely frightening experience. After spending some time with the latest preview build of the game, it's safe to say that in the hands of Double Helix, Silent Hill is as terrifying as it's ever been before.

The thing that's always been so chilling about the Silent Hill games has been their atmosphere. As fans well know, it's not necessarily the faceless creature lumbering towards you that scares the hell out of you, it's whatever terror might be waiting just around the next corner that'll really makes you wet your pants. Now, with the move from the last generation of consoles to the current gen, that atmosphere is all the more terrifying.

It's surprising how much detail the developers have managed to pack into this virtual ghost town. From the flaking paint on nearby buildings to the cracks in the asphalt of the street to the rotting vegetation of the landscape, the town of Silent Hill conveys a sense of despair in stunning hi-def. Then things go to hell, literally, as the sirens wail and the surroundings literally peel away, thrusting the town into the ethereal Otherworld, dragging the player helplessly along for the ride. If you watched the Christophe Gans-directed film based on the game, you'll have the best idea of how this looks. Once the transition is complete, the dull gray appearance of the "real" world is replaced with the scorched mix of flame and steel that makes up the Otherworld, as if all of Silent Hill was perched precariously atop of the fires of hell.